Many young children experience a sense of heightened expectation and excitement at the approach of their annual birthday. The child's birthday is often celebrated by a traditional birthday party in which a number of relatives, family friends, and school classmates of the child gather together in a festive atmosphere. In the days immediately preceding the child's birthday, the child is often engaged in joyous preparation for the party. One of the highlights of a traditional birthday party is the serving of a ceremonial comestible birthday cake whereupon the child makes a wish as he or she extinguishes a number of candles corresponding to the child's age. The act of blowing out the candles is often accompanied by the singing of "Happy Birthday" by the party guests. This experience is often a cherished childhood memory for the child as a rite of passage in that they have been singled out for special recognition and attention by both their family and peers.
There are a number of prior art devices which relate to the general idea of an artificial cake. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,996,675 by Placek relates to an Instructional Birthday Cake Toy utilizing a large number of pieces and parts and addresses the instructional and educational aspects of a simulated cake. However, many of these prior art devices employ a burdensome number of pieces which can become confusing for a young child to assemble, thus frustrating the child and detracting from the playful experience. In addition, many prior an devices focus on the instructional aspect of assembling the cake and therefore do not promote or emphasize the aristic creativity the child can cultivate and develop by decorating the cake once it is assembled.
The present invention abrogates all of the drawbacks found in the prior an and seeks to provide an artificial or simulated non-comestible decorative cake toy in which a child or group of children can essentially recreate the joyful birthday experience in a creative, instructive, and playful manner. The present invention also provides creative avenues to cultivate and develop a child's manual dexterity skills, color comprehension, and artistic creativity while also allowing the child to decorate the cake toy in a personalized manner appropriate to an occasion selected by the child. In doing so, the child can relive a past pleasant birthday experience, practice making wishes for a future birthday, or playfully celebrate any type of other occasion. These experiences can further serve to develop social interaction skills in a playful environment and impart proper table manners. Further, the present invention is reusable in that once the simulated decorative cake toy is assembled and decorated, it can be disassembled for future use by another or the same child, thus maintaining the child's level of interest in the cake toy. Also, a series of children can make a succession of artificial cakes, one after the other as hereafter further described.
In addition, it is contemplated that the present invention is also applicable for use by an engaged couple when selecting the design of a wedding cake. Many betrothed couples wish to meticulously plan their wedding with a pre-selected theme. Oftentimes, the chosen theme may depart from the traditional wedding cake design and be completely personal to the couple. The present invention can thus allow an engaged couple to individually create a simulated decorative cake corresponding to their personally chosen design. The couple could then show the artificial decorative cake of the present invention to a baker who could then be hired to reproduce the design created by the couple in comestible cake form.